Sunday, June 03, 2007

N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of the board, InfosysTechnologies, delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the New YorkUniversity ( Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillatingspeech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life andcareer.

Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, mostimportantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege tospeak at your commencement ceremonies.

I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kindinvitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion.Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an importantmilestone in your life journey.

After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my lifelessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early careerstruggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplannedevents which were the crucibles that tempered my character andreshaped my future.

I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, inthe hope that these may help you understand my struggles and howchance events and unplanned encounters with influential personsshaped my life and career.

Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. Mysincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trialsand tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.

The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in ControlTheory at IIT, Kanpur , in India . At breakfast on a bright Sundaymorning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computerscientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.

He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computerscience with a large group of students and how such developments wouldalter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing.I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, readfour or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determinedto study computerscience.

Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel athow one role model can alter for the better the future of a youngstudent. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimescome from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes opennew doors.

The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. Thelocation: Nis , a border town between former Yugoslavia , now Serbia ,and Bulgaria . I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore , India ,my home town.

By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m.on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank thenext morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. Islept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when theSofia Express pulled in.

The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I strucka conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about thetravails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughlyinterrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned bythe youn man who thought we were criticising the communist governmentof Bulgaria .

The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated.I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with acold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities.I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over72 hours.

I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when thedoor opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in theguard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that Iwould be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul . The guard'sfinal words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly countrycalled India and that is why we are letting you go!"

The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long,lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions aboutCommunism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.

I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale jobcreation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty insocieties.

Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transformingme from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist!Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding ofInfosys in 1981.

While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two,both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundlyinfluenced my career trajectory.

On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the sevenfounders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangaloresuburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for theenticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the thenbusiness-unfriendly India , we were quite happy at the prospect ofseeing at least some money.

I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussionsabout the travails of our journey thus far and our future challengeswent on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbaiapartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but alsoof how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I thentook an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling thecompany, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did nothave a cent in my pocket.

There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloudabout my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hourof my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way ofthinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, weshould be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up totheir promise of that day.

In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenuesin excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million anda market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richerthan the offer of $1 million on that day.

In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs,2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.

A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors,including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel inBangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another.This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Ourteam was very nervous.

First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.

Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The lossof this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.

Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. Thecustomer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out ofeach vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went onfor several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price -- one thatallowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technologyand training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any icewith the customer.

By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.

All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes,and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call,we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. Icommunicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accepttheir terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later.But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor ofcustomer's choice.

This was a turning point for Infosys.

Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured thatwe would never again depend too much on any one client, technology,country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessingin disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that hasstabilised its revenues and profits.

I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events havetaught me.

1. I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It isless important, I believe, where you start. It is more important howand what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, thedevelopment gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourselfin a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story isliving proof of this.

Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be muchmore difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail,we think carefully about the precise cause. Success canindiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

2. A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I thinkacross a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by theincredible role played by the interplay of chance events withintentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeedoften fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It isthis very quality of how we respond systematically to chance eventsthat is crucial.

3. Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. Asrecent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it mattersgreatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can bedeveloped. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates atendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback andleads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.

The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embracechallenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higherlevels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).

4. The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritualtradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, itis said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness andknowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more groundedbelief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility,all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity andgrace.

Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief inlearning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chanceevents, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.

Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today wouldhave been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successivestep, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these lifelessons that made all the difference.

My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Doyou believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or,do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it willdepend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?

Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to whichyou will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe thatyou will learn from these events and that you will reflect on yoursetbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes witheven greater care?

I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turningpoints with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path Ihave walked to much advantage.

A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world,remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporarycustodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial,intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is toshare it with those less fortunate.

I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from treesthat we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn togive, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eatthe fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. Ibelieve this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you willshoulder in time.

Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future withopen arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery